Super guacamole for Super Bowl Sunday. February 3, 2012

Silence Dogood here. Having just discovered that on Super Bowl Sunday, fans across America would be consuming some 143 million avocados in the form of guacamole, I felt that the least I could do was to make sure the guacamole was good.

The gold standard for guacamole is surely found in 1988’s The Pink Adobe Cookbook by Rosalea Murphy. Pink Adobe guacamole was the signature dish of Santa Fe’s famous The Pink Adobe restaurant back in 1988. Try it this Sunday and see what you think. Ms. Murphy rather startlingly described it as “cool chartreuse velvet.” (I’m sure our fabric-eating black German shepherd, Shiloh, would approve.)

Peel and remove the pit from the avocados. Mash with a silver fork until the pulp is very smooth. Blend in garlic, onion, chiles, and salt. Mix in the mayonnaise and stir in the lemon juice. Serve nestled with a lettuce leaf in your prettiest shallow bowl; garnish with paprika and surround with tomato slices and tostado chips for dipping. Serves 6.

At first, despite the “chartreuse velvet,” I thought maybe Ms. Murphy recommended using a silver fork to prepare the avocado to prevent the flesh from discoloring, a huge problem with avocados unless they’re eaten immediately or doused in citrus juice. But after “your prettiest shallow bowl,” I’m not so sure.

If you want to make sure your guacamole looks as good as it tastes, if I were you, I’d follow the advice of Golden Door spa executive chef Curtis Cooke (wow, talk about an appropriate name!): First, make your guac within 2 hours of serving, so it’s super-fresh; next, add some lime juice to preserve the color; and third, put a film of plastic wrap directly on the guacamole until you’re ready to serve it. This will keep out oxygen, which is what causes the guacamole to brown.

It’s trendy now to serve chunky guacamole rather than mashing it into a smooth dip, but frankly, there’s an easier, tastier way to add crunch and texture while capitalizing on avocados’ already-creamy texture: Top your guac with a layer of fresh salsa (finely chopped tomato, onion, cilantro, and jalapeno). Drain the salsa, reserving the juice to add punch to spaghetti sauce or spoon over chicken before baking or fish before poaching. Then spread a layer over the guacamole, as thin or thick as you like (1/4 salsa to 3/4 guac is fine, though we go for 1/3 salsa to 2/3 guac around here). Now enjoy both salsa and guac without double-dipping!